In his motorized wheelchair Tuesday, Vince Phason scooted out the front door of his ranch-style home in south Denver and headed to the nearby bus stop. His longhaired poodle service dog, Pekoe, excitedly joined him.

Phason was heading across town to Denver North High’s football practice — a practice at which Phason, a former star Canadian Football League defensive back paralyzed in a 1998 auto accident, “officially” wouldn’t be serving as a volunteer football coach.

The word is “officially,” because while the Denver Public Schools in October refused to clear him to continue to serve as a volunteer assistant coach, and he no longer can be in the bench area at games, Phason, 57, still shows up for the Vikings’ practices several days a week.

There, he is with head coach E. Paul Kelly Jr., who also is the school’s attendance and discipline monitor, and defensive coordinator Dave Sidwell, 64, a legendary former high school head coach who won two state championships at Mullen and now helps out at North.

The Vikings are 3-6 heading into their final game Saturday, against Kennedy at All-City Stadium. This is not about building a football juggernaut. This is about trying to influence young men at a still-struggling school in an eclectic neighborhood bouncing back around it.

“I was blessed to survive my automobile accident, and I had a dream at that time that life is about helping people,” Phason, a graduate of Manual High who played college ball at Arizona, said in his living room. “I feel like young men, our young people, period, need the most help. Football is my avenue, where I can be the most use to the community — and especially in Denver, where I was raised.”

The coaching staff, at least at the start of the season, included a three-man circle of friendship.

Sidwell, 64, lives in the North neighborhood, knew Kelly from their joint involvement in area boxing programs, and is in his first season of helping Kelly out at North after working during the day as a counselor at a foundation for developmentally disabled adults.

Sidwell has been friends with Phason for more than 20 years and has recruited Phason to help at a handful of his coaching stops. This time, Phason eagerly agreed to help coach at North and was enjoying it until word came from the DPS after the fifth game of the season that his application to be approved as a volunteer coach had been rejected. Two other volunteer coaches were “fired” too.

What if, despite the lack of official approval, Phason talks to the Vikings about man-to-man coverage or tackling techniques at practice? Well, it’s a free country, isn’t it?

“I go coach my kids every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday,” said Phason, who also recently received a degree from Metro State in behavioral sciences. “I guess I shouldn’t be there, but I go, anyway. . . . Until I’m 6 feet under and I can help another person by example or football technique, or how to treat people with respect and be responsible for your own actions, then I will stop trying to help. Not until then. As long as I’m breathing, they’ll never get rid of me, especially with our inner-city kids.”

Coaching, helping kids

Ninety minutes after leaving his house Tuesday, Phason and Pekoe arrived at the practice field behind the school. Two managers knew the routine. They unhooked Pekoe from Phason’s chair and tied the dog’s leash to a goalpost. Phason motored on. His friend Sidwell walked up and asked: “What’s up, buddy?”

But Phason was where he wanted to be, joining the Vikings players; his long-time coaching friend, Sidwell; and Kelly, the North alum and neighborhood native who, as a full-time employee of the school, might be risking the wrath of Denver Public Schools by allowing Phason to even attend practice.

“It kills me that we can’t have him out here with us,” Kelly said. “The guy’s done so many great things in football, and to take that away from these kids is ridiculous.”

Said Sidwell: “He still has a lot to impart to these kids. And coaching? It’s all he’s got. He could have $40 million, but what’s that going to do for him? Is it going to make him walk again? He wants to coach.They won’t let him do it.”

Through DPS deputy communications officer Kristy Armstrong, district officials Tuesday would only say: “The matter is currently under review, and the district can’t comment at this time.”

Background check

Phason has a copy of the background check run on him by a California firm and returned to DPS officials. It shows two incidents — one in which he was found guilty of driving an unsafe vehicle in 1997 and another in which he was found guilty of driving under restraint in 1998. He said he also has revealed a possession of marijuana charge in 1972, when he was 21, and a 1975 armed robbery conviction involving his stay at the University of Arizona that has been expunged from his record. He said he recently twice faxed to DPS human resources officials a two-page letter of explanation about the conviction.

The letter explains that Phason and two friends went to an apartment after several girls called them at his apartment and said that men the women had met at a club were refusing to give them rides home. Phason said one of his friends pulled out a weapon and robbed the men of their watches, which horrified him. But when police arrived at his apartment, it was apparent someone had seen his license plate number. He said he told the police the story, and the victims didn’t want to press charges, but he later was sentenced to 90 days, and served 43 because of good behavior shortly before reporting to the training camp with the San Diego Chargers, who picked him in the 11th round of the 1975 draft.

But none of that was in his official background check. Phason said a DPS human resources official called him the first week of October and told him his request to be a volunteer coach had been denied.

In recent weeks, he said, he has left phone messages that haven’t been returned. “I said, ‘Please call me back, I would like to be on the sidelines with my kids the last two games.’ They never called back.”

The season ends Saturday.

Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost

The coaching compatriots

DAVE SIDWELL

Age: 64

• Denver native

• East High graduate, played at the University of Colorado

• Three-time state Golden Gloves boxing champion

• Veteran high school head coach, including two state championships at Mullen and stints at Denver East, Manual, Bishop Machebeuf and Regis Jesuit.

• Serves as counselor at Roundup Fellowship for developmentally disabled adults during the day, part-time coach at North.

VINCE PHASON

Age: 57

• Denver native

• Manual High graduate

• Played defensive back at the University of Arizona

• Drafted by San Diego Chargers in 11th round in 1975; instead, spent 11 seasons as a standout in the Canadian Football League.

• Paralyzed in November 1998 automobile accident.

• Served as assistant coach at a handful of Denver-area high schools, both before and after the accident.

A graduate of Wheat Ridge High School and the University of Colorado, Terry Frei has been named a state's sportswriter of the year seven times -- four times in Colorado and three times in Oregon. He's the author of seven books, including the novel "Olympic Affair" about Colorado's Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic decathlon champion; and "Third Down and a War to Go," about the 1942 football national champion Wisconsin Badgers and the players' subsequent World War II heroism.

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